The average cost of getting a new driver on the road is £6,455

2nd March 2016

The average cost of getting a young driver on the road is now £6,455 compared to £6,768 last year, new figures reveal.

The £313 drop was fuelled by a 9% drop in the average cheapest car insurance premium for a 17 year old driver and a reduction in the amount of money being spent on first cars, the research by GoCompare.com has found.

The average cheapest car insurance premium for a 17 year old driver has fallen by 18% since 2009 moving from £2,477 then to £2,035 now.

However, the cost of car insurance for a 17 year old driver still constitutes around one third of the total ‘new driver’ bill and 25% of parents said the cost of car insurance for their child was far greater than expected.14% of parents said their children aren’t driving specifically because of the cost of insurance.

Young drivers and parents are spending on average £3,685 on their first car, a slight drop from £3,825 last year but still over £1,000 more than the average of £2,477 spent on a first car in 2009.

The survey of 2,000 parents revealed that they give their children a significant amount of financial help to get them on the road. 67% said that they have contributed to the cost of driving lessons, over a third (35%) have paid or intend to pay towards the cost of a car for their child and 31% have helped with insurance costs.

When their children are learning to drive the cost of car insurance is parents’ second biggest concern after safety.

On average, learning to drive costs in the region of £623 by the time the costs of obtaining a provisional licence, lessons and test fees are taken into account.

The research revealed that young new drivers typically take 21 driving lessons before passing their test, so with driving lessons costing around £24 per hour, the average bill for lessons alone is £504.

Matt Oliver, car insurance spokesman for GoCompare.com, says: “A young driver’s first car insurance premium is significant part of the cost of getting on the road so it’s great news that the average best premium for 17 year old drivers has fallen by 9% from 2014 and by 18% since 2009. However, at an average of £2,035 that first premium still costs more than many people’s first cars. Unfortunately, figures show that newly qualified drivers are more likely to have accidents and when they do they tend to be more serious and incur larger car insurance claims. That’s what’s reflected in the premiums. However, some insurers will be more competitive than others when quoting premiums for young drivers so they must compare quotes from a number of different insurers to ensure they get the right cover at the best price.

He adds: “There are some things younger drivers can do to try to lower their insurance premiums. The choice of car can make a big difference with sporty cars with larger engines costing significantly more to insure than less exciting models with engines of less than 1000cc. Telematics or ‘black box’ type insurance policies, which monitor their driving, could also help to reduce young driver premiums more quickly if they show that they are the exception to the rule by adopting safe driving behaviour.”